Have you ever had a project in mind, maybe a book, or artwork, or a DIY idea that you’ve been milling over for years? It’s that thing that you think about starting, or even start and stop, that never really goes away. The thought of it periodically wafts up to remind you that it’s still not done.
Well, today, I finished that thing!
I’m sitting here in tears, because the final step was waaay harder than it was supposed to be. I thought all I had to do was upload one file, just a simple pdf. I expected the last step to be ONE step. And it ended up being like 5 or 6! It it took EVERYTHING out of me, so when I got it done, I was literally sobbing.
Let me back up.
So I have been “working on” a project for YEARS. Ideas for it came to me in little floods and showers and I’d get excited, jot down notes about it, and then go on with my life. The idea was for a tool to support people like me, who have challenges with focus, completing tasks, and generally struggle at having productive days.
Some years ago, I created a template—a fill-in-the-blank style worksheet—that helped me work around my challenges with executive dysfunction. If you have no idea what that is, executive functions are the essential skills that we all utilize to complete tasks. The main ones are: working memory (that allows you to hold and manipulate information in your mind), impulse control, adapting to change, organizing and planning, and managing your emotions.
Some of these I’m pretty okay at, but all of these get in the way at some point just about every day. Since I deal with executive dysfunction, my brain doesn’t typically support me to automatically do these things. So completing tasks can be very challenging, and far too often this prevents me from being productive. So I created a worksheet template that I could use to help me work around my executive functioning challenges.
I have been planning to release this project for New Year’s for at least the last 3 YEARS. The idea was to create a full journal for myself and others to be able to utilize my productivity template on a daily basis. And I started on it and stopped many times for various reasons (check out the podcast above), but when I was approaching another New Year’s Eve without this project being more than just an idea, I knew I had to make it happen. So I sat down and utilized my productivity template to get it done. And when the year was ending, I was hitting “confirm and publish.”
I was so excited and so proud of myself. AND each time I tapped the button nothing happened. 😩 I started to get discouraged. But then I thought, maybe it’s for a reason.
Maybe this was an opportunity for me to make a few corrections. Since I had given myself this arbitrary deadline of publishing it by the 1st, I was rushing it, and it wasn’t to my standard. So I celebrated myself for reaching that beautiful stopping point and decided to let it be okay, trust it wasn’t time yet, and revisit it later.
The challenge of waiting was that my free time to do it was running out. And my other responsibilities were pulling me away from my computer every day so before I knew it, regularly scheduled life was back in full swing. With my daughter back in school, I didn’t have the cushion of winter break to help me through my focus and executive functioning challenges. With the effort that’s required to get through the mornings wrangling my brain and managing my emotions, I tend to run out of steam by the time I drop my daughter off at school. All the thinking, planning, processing, interacting, figuring out this and that, driving, and general efforting required to do the morning zaps my limited amount of energy. Focusing after that most days is damn near impossible. The ideal situation would’ve been that I spent the entire holiday break working on this project. But life isn’t ideal, it’s real.
When I dragged my weary body over the finish line of her last day of school before winter break, I was burned the eff out. Plus, I still had all the mom stuff to make her Christmas amazing. I still had to navigate family relationships and grab last minute presents. I was determined to put my tree up and decorate it, because I’d been looking forward to it all year. To show how burned out I was feeling, I finished decorating my tree on December 27th. To be really honest, it’s still up now. I’m still finding the energy to open presents.
But enough about that. I pulled it off at the last day of the year. And spent the following weeks trying to find and make time to work on it. And the thing that helped me on those few days was that each time I had to print out pages to check out the layout, I used those pages to help me plan my next steps. I used my own journal to help me publish my journal!
I DID IT!!!! I EFFING DID IT!!!! I hit publish on the project I’ve been trying to complete for at least 3 years!
So let me tell you about it….
I am a person who used to purchase a new planner every year. And every year I would stop using that planner within days.
I no longer allow myself to purchase planners. I KNOW they don’t work for me.
What I realized is that planners don’t support me to get my work done. They simply tell me what and when, but they don’t provide the how. I need the how in order to get things done. Maybe you do, too.
I created a daily journal for people like me who need more than what a simple planner provides and less than what those fancy ones provide. I don’t need an overstimulating scrap book. I need guidance. I need to be asked the right questions so I can plan my day and follow through. I need to adjust my mindset to align confidently with getting my stuff done.
That’s what I created. I created a tool to help me process my intentions into manageable tasks. AND I added a new feature. On the same page I added an end-of-day practice to help me process through the events of my day and release them so I can rest. And I’m making it available for you, too.
I could drone on and on, because I’m really excited about it. But I think this is enough for today.
Please check out today’s podcast, where you get to hear me seconds after hitting publish on this project.
So grateful you’re here. And I’m so excited to share this with you.
I’ll keep you posted with updates. Thanks again for your support!
Blessings!
Marlene Dillon Empowerment Specialist
Here’s a little sneak preview of the book description and other details—a screenshot I took as I submitted my newest self-published book! The title is “What’s Your V.I.B.E.: A daily journal to help you focus and process your day.”
Ignore that last question. 😂 Luckily the answer is no.
I hope you’ll support when it’s released.
Tentative release date: My birthday, February 15, 2026. 🥰
Want to be notified when What’s Your V.I.B.E. is released?
I’m putting the finishing touches on my new journal, What’s Your V.I.B.E.
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